Renting to Incoming Refugees

[Eduardo Esquivel]

Hello all,

I’m a new landlord with just one property so far. My wife and I took the DIY route and are currently renting to friends while looking toward our next property. I have big dreams to expand my portfolio in the next couple years, but I’m still getting money together for my next purchase.

All that said, I’m actually reaching out for my day job (gotta pay the bills while you’re starting up!). I’m a housing specialist at a refugee services organization based in the Philadelphia metro. We have been building relationships with area landlords for years now to house newly arrived refugees while providing supportive case management and housing liaison services to ensure that refugees who are placed are respectful tenants and good community members. We provide a varying amount of rental assistance, between 3 and 6 months on average, as people are settling and getting employment.

Due to the current housing backups caused by the eviction moratorium and all the uncertainty that’s brought, some of the landlords we’ve partnered with have gotten more cautious and antsy recently. It’s been difficult to have an open dialogue about their concerns.

We’re trying to figure out what kinds of services, guarantees, etc. would help landlords to feel safe in partnering with us to rent to our incoming clients in these very uncertain times. Our clients are wonderful, respectful, boot-strapping survivors who have powered through every challenge in front of them--there’s no other way for people to make it through the refugee system.

I’m hoping that folks here might be able to give me a sense of what questions they might have and what would make them feel secure in partnering with such a program.

Thank you in advance,

Ed